An uneducated perspective on Evangelicals

[McNasty 260]

I want to point out up front that I'm no expert on ANY side of this conversation.  I will never pretend to be.  I also do NOT want this to turn into a debate on whether or not God is real.  Save that for another thread.  This is focused on Christianity, so leave other religions aside unless its related to the point I'm trying to make/understand further.

 

That being said, are any of you familiar with the app Nextdoor?  It's actually a pretty badass app that creates a forum, just like this, but is limited to the people in your neighborhood and surrounding neighborhoods.  It's a fantastic way to talk about local news, try and sell stuff, give others heads up about events, crime in the area, recommendations for home services, etc.  Whatever you want to talk about, it's an open forum moderated by "leaders" from each specific neighborhood.  This is a random plug I guess because the app is great an all of you should look into it where applicable.

 

I'm bringing this up, because someone made a post about their desire to find a good church that's more on the contemporary side, and great for kids.  With this being an international forum, I don't know how things are outside of the South here in the US where I live.....but over the past 5-10 years we have seen a huge growth in "mega churches".  As in.....monumental growth.  The money pouring into these churches would make your head spin.  18 out of the 23 people who responded all recommended this person go to the local mega church.

 

I get it.....traditional church for most is boring.  The mega churches have capitalized on this, and turned church into a full on production of awesome music and cinematography where it's more like something you would pay to go see.  There's value in that no doubt.  The more you can get people to attend church, the better IMO.  That being said, I have a real problem with these churches for a lot of reasons.  

 

I just don't see any validity in their existence.  This seems to be the case with all evangelical churches to me.  A select few decide what they're going to teach, wrap it up into a compelling production, turn it into a money churning business, and it draws the masses.  My concern is that there is no foundation.  Anyone can take the Bible, pick and choose their sermons, decide what they feel is most relevant and "contemporary" because it draws the crowd, and run with it.  When is the last time you heard Joel Osteen talk about the things that send you to hell?  Their teachings change with the tides.  

 

Again I don't want this to be a debate on creationism vs evolution, I'm just interested in hearing perspectives on this new style of faith versus the traditional Christian churches.  

 

 

 

[Jason 1,245]

There is one of those style of churches by me. I'm gonna make a long story short, but I have some experience with this church.

I am not religious. I'm not even baptised. My wife and her family were raised Catholic. My sister in law started going to this mega church because they had day care, and soon she was hooked on the music the coffee shop, the bakery and all that shit. Fine. Great. I don't care, I'm an outsider to the whole thing, but my wife hates it. Lol

So we end up having to go a few times for various things my nephew and nieces are involved in. I'll admit, it is nice, comfortable seats, free food and drinks a state of the art video and audio system and a very hip and dynamic pastor. (this place had to cost millions btw)

This is the man that hundreds of people flock to see preach, this dynamic pastor. He's current, and hip and the people are falling all over this. Hands raised and gettin healed.

So fast forward (cause I'm sure you get the idea), the pastor is found dead in his home. He killed himself by locking himself in the garage with his vehicle started. It's not the first time he tried to do it either, but he did it right this time I guess. So I found out that he had a history of cheating on his spouse's multiple times. Was married 3 times,and most recently was discovered to be peeling money from the church, they told him to step down and I guess that's what made him commit suicide.

So he had all these people (hundreds, a thousand, I don't know) believe in him, in his teaching in his church and all the people that loved him and this is who he was. A lying, cheating, coward.

That's the only experience I've had with this style of religion. I guess it wasn't as short of a story as I thought... But I condensed as much as I could.

I'm sure like anything else, there are excellent churches like this out there with wonderful leaders,and there is shit. This guy was shit,but they made him a martyr and the church lives on.

As far as this vs traditional church, the same rules apply I think, there is great people who lead traditional church and there is shit people. It really doesn't matter to me where you go for religious teaching and all that. I was just bothered by this guy, claiming he was such a man of God and would show people the light and to follow him, to have all those people look to you, then kill yourself... It had been bothering me and I just wanted to type it out. Lol So sorry if it's not the direction you wanted this to take.

Sorry for grammar and spelling errors, all this was typed quick on my phone.

Edit : I guess this bothers me so much because several people I know believed so much in this guy, looked to him through hard times, only to find out he was a shell of a person.